NAME

       ipsec - invoke IPsec utilities

SYNOPSIS

       ipsec command [argument...] ipsec --help
             ipsec --version
             ipsec --versioncode
             ipsec --copyright
             ipsec --directory
             ipsec --confdir

DESCRIPTION

       Ipsec invokes any of several utilities involved in controlling the IPsec encryption/authentication
       system, running the specified command with the specified arguments as if it had been invoked directly.
       This largely eliminates possible name collisions with other software, and also permits some centralized
       services.

       In particular, ipsec supplies the invoked command with a suitable PATH environment variable, and also
       provides IPSEC_DIR, IPSEC_CONFS, and IPSEC_VERSION environment variables, containing respectively the
       full pathname of the directory where the IPsec utilities are stored, the full pathname of the directory
       where the configuration files live, and the IPsec version number.

       ipsec --help lists the available commands. Most have their own manual pages, e.g.  ipsec_auto(8) for
       auto.

       ipsec --version outputs version information about Linux FreeS/WAN. A version code of the form
       ``Uxxx/Kyyy´´ indicates that the user-level utilities are version xxx but the kernel portion appears to
       be version yyy (this form is used only if the two disagree).

       ipsec --versioncode outputs just the version code, with none of --version´s supporting information, for
       use by scripts.

       ipsec --copyright supplies boring copyright details.

       ipsec --directory reports where ipsec thinks the IPsec utilities are stored.

       ipsec --confdir reports where ipsec thinks the IPsec configuration files are stored.

FILES

       /usr/local/lib/ipsec usual utilities directory

ENVIRONMENT

       The following environment variables control where FreeS/WAN finds its components. The ipsec command sets
       them if they are not already set.

           IPSEC_EXECDIR  directory containing published commands
           IPSEC_LIBDIR   directory containing internal executables
           IPSEC_SBINDIR  directory containing ipsec command
           IPSEC_CONFS    directory containing configuration files

SEE ALSO

       ipsec.conf(5), ipsec.secrets(5), ipsec_auto(8), ipsec_barf(8), ipsec_setup(8), ipsec_showdefaults(8),
       ipsec_showhostkey(8)

       HTML documentation shipped with the release, starting with doc/index.html.
       <http://www.freeswan.org/doc.html> may also be of use.

HISTORY

       Written for Linux FreeS/WAN <http://www.freeswan.org> by Henry Spencer.

BUGS

       The provision of centralized services, while convenient, does compromise the original concept of making
       the utilities invocable directly as well as via ipsec.

[FIXME: source]                                    10/06/2010                                           IPSEC(8)